Russian Church of Jesus Christ of Mormons
The Russian Church of Jesus Christ of Mormons (Cyrillic: Русская Церковь Иисуса Христа Мормоны) is the modern governing ecclesiastical body of Russian Mormonism. Today, the Church enjoys the professing membership of 83% of the population of the Free Territory of Liberterra, the majority of which are converts from the Orthodox Church. Name The Church claims to be the sole legitimate Church of Jesus Christ in the Russian region, a claim that has been met with condemnation from the Orthodox Church. As such, the church applies the name of "Church of Jesus Christ" to itself. It is called Russian for it's distinct existence solely in the Russian world and is called Mormon to distinguish itself from the Orthodox faith. Origin of Russian Mormonism Mid 17th century Russia experienced a wealth of religious revivial in the form of the Khlysists and the Molokans. The former embraced a mystical type of Russian peasant Christianity, rejecting the authority of the ecclesiastical Church in favor of living revelation and the influence of modern apostles and prophets; their "unorthodox" views included a deeply personal experience of God and spiritual marriage. The latter Molokanist movement evolved from the Khlysists, but advocated a much more traditional approach to the faith. They merged some of the liturgical elements of traditional Orthodoxy with the theology of the Khylsisite movement. The two movements influenced each other to a great degree, and grew in popularity until the 19th century. Some of the movement developed communal living, inspired by St. Nilus' ideology of common property and voluntary poverty. From 1855 to 1872, an influential and charismatic Molokan known as Ivan Grigorev Kanygin began organizing Khylsists/Molokans in the Novouzensk region of Russia into a type of communal living based upon the teachings of the New Testament. Much of his ideology came from a childhood of Molokan communism and early exposure to Methodist teachings. His followers called themselves simply "Methodists" or "communists". In 1869, an Orthodox priest named Khrisanf Rozhdestvenskiy applied the term "Mormon" to Kanygin's movement. By the 1870's, communal movements of a nature similar to Kanygin's Methodists began to arise in regions apart from their direct influence in the Novouzensk region. By that time, Mormonism was a popular title to attach to this large movement. In the later 1870's, the movement had developed into a charismatic community of peasants lead by primitive church organization; they placed heavy influence on modern revelation, one's own relationship with God, concepts of spiritual marriage, and communal living. It must be noted, however, that the two key concepts of American Mormonism, Book of Mormon and the Prophethood of Joseph Smith, Jr, were absent, though the Church would go on to accept these doctrines with the 1990 arrival of the LDS American missionaries .The movement did, however, enjoy a strong sense of Christian primitivism and claimed to fulfill the restoration of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ apart from the Orthodox Church in modern times. This claim would be the deciding influential factor in the development of the modern Liberterrian Mormonism, essentially identical to primitive American Mormonism. Ecclesiastical Structure The Church claims theFirst Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, as the legitimate spiritual head of the Church. The LDS First Presidency does not exercise administrative authority, however; the Russian Church acts with it's own Quorum of Twelve and Council of Seventy. The Utah LDS Church recognizes the legitimacy of the parallel institution by citing a liberal reading of Mark 9:40 and a modern revelation from the Church's First Presidency. In addition, all professing and baptized members of the Church claim the Latter-day Saint Aaronic and Melchizidech Priesthoods through tracing their authority back to the two original LDS missionaries and subsequently to Joseph Smith, Jr. Doctrine The Church teaches that there is one God who is three divinely expressed beings called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and this is referred to as a "mystery of the Church". Through the atonement of Jesus Christ and obedience to the principles and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, men are saved from their own transgressions and continue the progress of eternal progression. Ordinances of the Church include marriage, eucharist, baptism for the living, baptism for the dead, conference of Priesthood, and the laying on of hands. The foundation of the Church's authority comes through the idea that Jesus Christ established a Church with authority whose legitimacy was lost through the Great Apostasy and subsequent death of the Apostles. God has acted through a number of ways to restore this legitimacy. An expression of this doctrine unique to the Russian Church is the legitimacy of a series of Prophets culminating in Joseph Smith, Jr. In order of progression: *St. Nilus of Sora *Ivan Grigorev Kanygin *Leo Tolstoy *Joseph Smith, Jr. The progression of these claimed Prophets is not in authority but in the doctrines of the Restored Gospel that each of them contributed to, culminating in the translation of the Book of Mormon and Smith's reception of legitimate Priesthood Authority from the resurrected Saints. A type of communal living is still widely practiced in the Church and is nearly identical to the LDS principles of the United Order. Scripture The Church recognizes the Eastern Orthodox version of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, it's own version of the Pearl of Great Price, and the LDS Doctrine and Covenants as scripture. The Church also recognizes, under the principles of LDS D&C 91 , the use of the Pseudephigrapha, the Deuterocanon and the theological writings of Leo Tolstoy. Relationship to American Mormonism Russian Mormonism is, with the acceptance of the Book of Mormon and the Prophethood of Joseph Smith, Jr. as well as the "trueness" of the Church established by him and the other early Saints in America, nearly identical to American Mormonism. It tends to take on more fundamentalist flavors in the iteration of doctrines such as celestial marriage and communal living. A strong sense of Russian identity is present in Russian Mormonism, however; while the Church recognizes Independence, Missouri as the site of New Jerusalem, they are quick to add "that Zion is spread out from America to the whole earth, and it rests not with one city or man but with all cities and men" Category:Liberterrania